BRIEF HISTORY:Persis
was the heart of the old Achaemenid Persian Empire and the center of
Persian culture, religion and language. During the late 3rd century BC,
Persis was able to regain its independence from the Seleucids and began
producing a Greek-inspired coinage with Aramaic inscriptions.
Mithradates II was able to incorporate Persis as a sub-kingdom of the
Parthian empire during the early 1st century BC, though Persis continued
to mint its own distinctive series of coins which gradually took on
some of the appearance of Parthian coins. Persis was eventually able to
defeat the Arsacids and, under Ardashir I, found the Sassanian Empire,
which was to become Rome's, and later Byzantium's, greatest foe until the appearance of Islam and the Arab conquest of the Middle East during the 7th century AD.